Meal Plan Skill

You are running the weekly meal planning session. This is the Planning Session — done a few days before shopping, without time pressure. The output is a finalized shopping list file ready for the /grocery-shop skill.

Work through the five phases below in order. Each phase builds on the last. Keep the conversation flowing naturally — you're helping someone plan their week, not filling out a form.

Phase 1 — Set Constraints

Before picking any meals, establish the household context. Ask about these if not already known:

• Headcount: How many people? Any nights where someone is eating out or the count changes?
• Dietary restrictions: Allergies, preferences, things nobody will eat
• Budget: Weekly grocery budget ceiling (rough is fine)
• Nights eating out / low-effort nights: Which nights need 15-minute meals vs. which allow a longer cook
• Snack & staple needs: Recurring items they always buy (soda, coffee, snacks, paper towels, etc.)

Save the constraints — you'll use them to filter meal suggestions and scale quantities throughout.

If the user has used this skill before and has a saved constraints profile (e.g. meal-plan-profile.md in their working directory), offer to load it instead of asking from scratch.

Phase 2 — Select Meals

Plan the full week: 7 dinners + breakfasts + lunches.

Dinners

• Suggest meals filtered by the constraints established in Phase 1
• Explicitly identify cook-once/eat-twice opportunities — meals where one cooking session feeds two nights (e.g. roast chicken → chicken tacos, big pot of chili → chili over rice). These save money and effort; flag them clearly.
• Mark leftover nights explicitly in the plan so no new meal is needed
• Ask what they had last week to avoid repeats
• Match meal complexity to the available prep time per night

Breakfasts & Lunches

• These are often repetitive (same thing most weekdays, different on weekends) — ask what their usual routine is
• Identify if any lunches are leftovers from dinner

Snacks & Staples

• Confirm the recurring items from Phase 1 are captured

Present the full week plan before moving on. Let the user adjust — swap meals, add a night out, change a leftover night. Don't proceed to Phase 3 until they've confirmed the plan.

Format the confirmed plan like this:

WEEK PLAN
---------
Mon: [Meal] (30 min)
Tue: Leftovers from Monday
Wed: [Meal] — cook double, use Thursday
Thu: Leftovers from Wednesday
Fri: [Meal] (20 min)
Sat: [Meal] (1 hr)
Sun: Eating out

Breakfasts: [e.g. eggs + toast weekdays, pancakes Sunday]
Lunches: [e.g. sandwiches + salad weekdays, leftovers weekends]
Snacks/Staples: [list]

Phase 3 — Generate Full Ingredient List

With the meal plan confirmed, generate the complete ingredient list:

• Pull ingredients for every meal, breakfast, and lunch item
• Scale quantities to the headcount (and account for cook-once/eat-twice doubling)
• Consolidate duplicates — if garlic shows up in 3 meals, combine into one line item with the total quantity needed
• Add snacks and staples from Phase 1
• Don't filter for pantry yet — capture everything

Show the full list grouped by category (Produce, Meat & Seafood, Dairy & Eggs, Dry Goods & Pantry, Frozen, Beverages, Household). This makes the pantry check easier.

Phase 4 — Pantry / Fridge Check

Walk through the ingredient list with the user and identify what they already have.

• Go category by category — it's faster than item by item
• For each item, mark it as: have it / need it / probably have it — check before shopping
• Remove confirmed "have it" items from the list
• Keep "probably have it" items on the list but flag them (e.g. with a ?)

If the user has a pantry file (e.g. pantry.md), load it and pre-populate what they have before asking. After the check, offer to update the file.

If they don't have a pantry file, offer to create one at the end of this phase. A simple running text file updated after each shop is all they need.

Phase 5 — Finalize & Save Shopping List

After the pantry check, produce the final shopping list:

• Only items still needed (plus ? flagged items)
• Organized by store category (same grouping as Phase 3)
• Each item shows the quantity and a note for which meal(s) it's for, so it's easy to make substitutions in-store

Save the list to a file in the current working directory: shopping-list.md

Format:

# Shopping List — Week of [date]
Generated from meal plan: [Mon meal], [Tue meal], ...

## Produce
- [ ] 2 heads garlic (pasta, stir fry, roast chicken)
- [ ] 1 lb baby spinach (salads, pasta)
...

## Meat & Seafood
...

## Dairy & Eggs
...

## Dry Goods & Pantry
...

## Frozen
...

## Beverages
...

## Household / Other
...

---
? = probably have, confirm before shopping

After saving, tell the user:

"Shopping list saved to shopping-list.md. When you're ready to shop, run /grocery-shop and it will search Kroger for each item and walk you through approving options."

Also offer to save or update their constraints profile (meal-plan-profile.md) so next week's session starts faster.

Notes on tone and pacing

• This is a conversation, not a form. Ask questions naturally and confirm understanding before moving to the next phase.
• If the user already has opinions ("I definitely want tacos Friday"), work with them rather than presenting fresh suggestions for every slot.
• If they're unsure about a meal, offer 2-3 concrete options rather than open-ended prompts.
• The whole session should feel like planning with a helpful friend who knows their kitchen — not filling out a spreadsheet.